Mugabe names streets after his cronies...Oh Zimbabwe!! The country which cursed me, the place where I took my first African steps 13 years ago and which is to blame for me failing to be responsible and start a career up until now and probably for many years in the future. We'd booked a room in the Small World Lodge by phone a few weeks back and arrived to discover that we couldn't have it. A guy was staying there a few days ago, apparently, and disappeared with the key. So sorry about that. We ended up in separate dorms and rounded off the evening with style by getting takeaway cheeseburgers and our first packet of biltong since Nairobi. And what a feast it was.
Shall we park illegally, dear?Following morning, we embarked on parents project vol. 2 – M's parents were landing at Harare airport around midday. I'd successfully avoided “walking the plank” (c.f. South Luangwa post) and we nearly managed to give them a rousing welcome – it seemed that some Chinese dignitary was arriving at the same time and a gang of guys in pseudo-African leopard print loin cloths were playing the drums to welcome this dignitary, whoever he was. M's parents unfortunately didn't come out until a while after the performers had gone. These African first-timers were then taxied back into town. “I thought it was winter here?” we were asked from the back seat. “It is”. A confused silence. “Oh really?”. It seemed we had some work to do here. We then spent a lovely evening hunting for vegetarian food for Tiina. This isn't always an overly easy thing to do at the best of times in Africa, but on a Sunday in Harare it's a situation that MacGyver himself would have struggled to get out of. We eventually managed it.
Shop til you drop in Harare's busy shopping district!Zimbabwe has obviously taken a battering from its total economic meltdown – the circulating currency is now the US dollar, Harare itself looks more tired in many places than it did the first time I was here. People are still smiley and friendly though, and the city is still amongst the more developed looking we've seen on the whole trip – shiny buildings, busy streets and, of course, the gift of the West to the rest of the world – multi-storey shopping centres. How I've missed them (sarcasm intended). We took it easy for the day, wandering around doing our normal things – taking a coffee here, having a bite to eat there, taking M to hospital again. Blobs had been growing on her feet and juice had been flowing out in a way reminiscent of a movie from the Alien series. The result was – stop smoking, go on antibiotics. We went for a beer and a fag to celebrate. We have a lot to see and a lot of distance to cover while M's parents are here so we only really had a day in Harare but M and I are thinking about coming back later, so we'll see what happens.
An extremely familiar sight on this trip
The bustling streets of Samora Machel Avenue
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